Hampton Inn, South of Court

[Mastermind]

This won't be a high rise or even a midrise. There is a height limitation along the riverfront of 75 ft. There are ways to get a waiver of this height requirement, but if this hotel gets built, it should be on the same scale as the buildings to the north.

After looking at the Master Plan, you can only go 75' on Water Street, but you can go 150' on 2nd Ave.

[DMRyan]

The master plan is not the zoning code.

[Keepgrowingdsm]

Ryan,

Yes that was one spot but there was a VERY quiet proposal for a hotel on top of a parking garage west of the 801 grand building near Gateway Park. I believe it was the garage that has or had a bank on the first level along Grand. This garage was designed to add several stories on top of it.

[DMRyan]

It was proposed for the 7th and Grand parking garage (the one that goes over the street with Mr. Filet on the first level), but I think this proposal died back in the early 2000's unless someone is trying to get it going again.

[Keepgrowingdsm]

Actually, that's not the one I was talking about. It is the garage just to the West of 801 Grand on Grand. It was a very quiet proposal. One of the TV stations caught wind of it after I heard about it and then there was no more news.

[dsmurbanite]

Actually, that's not the one I was talking about. It is the garage just to the West of 801 Grand on Grand. It was a very quiet proposal. One of the TV stations caught wind of it after I heard about it and then there was no more news.

901 Grand perhaps? There is a Bank of the West there (drive thru, the other is on the 3rd level of 801 Grand). Still a block or two down from the park though.

[Keepgrowingdsm]

901 is the address. I simply could not think of Bank of the West but it used to be a Commercial Federal which I think changed to the Bank of the West. THANK YOU for helping my lapse of memory!!

[armface]

so its been a while since anyone has posted on this but is there anything new going on with this or any renderings

[DMRyan]

Keeping the fingers crossed, but it's so hard to get funding for hotel projects right now. So many recent downtown hotel projects (some of which never made it this far in the proposal stage) have come and gone over the past few years. Couple that with some of the historical preservation/archeological and urban design concerns of this very import riverfront location and it becomes a more difficult site to redevelop.

I did see in a DSM Business Record report that Nelson Development got the loan needed to convert floors of the Liberty Building to a Hyatt Place, so hopefully this will still get off the ground.

[Mototail]

I thought the meeting to vacate the alley way for the Hampton Inn did happen just recently. That was the only hurdle besides financing that they were eying to begin construction.

[hawk61401]

Couple that with some of the historical preservation/archeological and urban design concerns of this very import riverfront location and it becomes a more difficult site to redevelop.

Oooh gosh, I hope not. I remember they found some broken bottles or pottery at the Science Center site. Construction came to a grinding halt and there was the possibility of a work stoppage for weeks. The preservationists wanted plenty of time to sift through the dirt. Vilsack stepped on some toes and hurt people's feelings by getting construction moving again.

I'm all for preservation but it gets to the point of being ridiculous. Des Moines is not built on an archaeological gold mine like Rome and London. I don't recall The Embassy Suites having a bunch of hassles maybe other than height restrictions. It did a half decent job of being built near city hall.

But I agree .... we want something that architecturally fits in with the area.

[Mastermind]

I wouldn't throw away the archeolgical significance so easily. Remember Woolly was found where Nationwide now stands. http://www.iowahistory.org/museum/exhib ... h/meet.htm

[dogbo]

I think the main issue is that this ground would have been part of the very first settlement in Des Moines. (i.e.…Fort Des Moines).

Here's a letter that was submitted to the city council:
http://www.ci.des-moines.ia.us/mayor_co ... 09/15a.pdf

[Mulder.DSM]

I did see in a DSM Business Record report that Nelson Development got the loan needed to convert floors of the Liberty Building to a Hyatt Place, so hopefully this will still get off the ground.

Ryan, this information is incorrect. Residents have been told that no loan of any kind has YET been approved for the Liberty hotel. They are still working on funding.

[DMRyan]

Another one bites the dust...

Excerpts from the DSM Business Record:

Hotel plan withdrawn following council's motion for archeological survey

By Todd Razor

The would-be developer of a downtown hotel has backed off plans to construct a 140-room inn south of Court Avenue, citing what it considers to be unreasonable expectations for an archeological survey of the proposed site.

HRC Hotels LLC had been considering a
purchase of 101, 121 and 114 S.W. Second St., proposing to redevelop the parcels with an approximately 80,000-square-foot Hampton Inn, before a Des Moines City Council motion in July made the survey a condition of the vacation of an alleyway needed to begin construction.

"Council directed staff to work with the developer regarding the archeological and historical architecture issues on the site," said Matt Anderson, Des Moines economic development director. Following the July 27 council meeting, the applicant's attorney told him "the project was no longer moving forward," he said.

Jeffrey Good, president of HRC Hotels, said his company has spent nearly $150,000 on preliminary engineering work, a franchise fee and a third-party feasibility study of the downtown hotel market in anticipation of the development progressing.

There are "a couple of people in the economic development department who have a certain vision of how they feel the downtown area should be developed," Good said. He thinks the city is using the right-of-way approval process to force HRC Hotels to do the study, even though the developer isn't pursuing any federal funds or tax abatements to offset the $15 million project cost.

"Is this the leverage they are going to use on each site?" Good asked. "Do you spend additional money to go through the process again and maybe end up with the same results? They have the right-of-way wild card to use whenever they want."

"In no way was the City Council saying (HRC Hotels) couldn't develop there due to archeological restraints," Anderson said. The council's intent, he said, was only to investigate the historical and archeological implications of conveying the alleyway.

"If a developer wants our alley, we need to think of the implications of conveying that alley," Anderson said. The specified conditions were not stringent enough to "derail a project."

"If we are going to invest $15 million," Good said, "we are going to follow the rules. But we need to figure out a way where the city can balance what (its) endowment in the project is going to be.

"We were told that we were going to lose the vote," based on the council's recommendations, he said.

Good said HRC's intent was, and still is, to construct four or five hotels in Iowa, which includes its recently completed 82-room Hampton Inn and Suites in Marshalltown.

Anderson said the City Council and staff were looking forward to working with HRC on the development.

"It is unfortunate that they are not going forward," he said.

[hawk61401]

I was afraid this was going to happen. Des Moines sends the message: We're more worried about decaying timbers and broken pottery under the ground than we are about jobs, the future, and development for downtown.

If the area is such a goldmine of historical significance and possibility, then get to diggin'. Then, afterwards, we can talk to developers and won't have to worry about throwing obstacles and delays for companies who want to invest here. The alternative is to let whatever is there remain buried for another one hundred years under the weeds and eyesores. Who knows what we lost. This hotel might have spurred other development in the area and for the riverwalk.

I don't blame HRC Hotels LLC for being leery of archaelogical scenarios beyond their control.

[dogbo]

It didn't sound to me that this "dig" would necessary slow down their plans. I have to wonder if the hotel developer started to get cold feet for other reasons, and this was just an easy way out. Maybe the cost associated with building a hotel that was going to look appropriate along the river front as opposed to being built for a business park. Just a guess.

Regardless, I'm with hawk. The city need to get moving on NOW if they really feel that digging in this area for historical artifacts is a priority. This is prime real estate and it needs to be ready to go for when the next project is proposed.

[mirage1]

this certainly isn't about the dig. it is all about "we couldn't get the financing....".

my opinion.

[econboy]

They wouldn't have gone this far if financing wasn't there. This is a case of the developer learning more of what Des Moines wanted and required of them and decided it then wasn't feasible.

I agree, there isn't anything of archeological importance big enough to warrant such a halt in development. Thus, this tells me the city was doing other things to make the company uncomfortable.

Asthetics along the river aside, this would have been a good development for court avenue.

[Mastermind]

I agree, there isn't anything of archeological importance big enough to warrant such a halt in development

how does anyone know whether there anything or not? That is the reason for the survey. I'm glad we have a city that wants to preserve these artifacts if they are there. Reminds me of what is going on in Pennsylvania and Walmart building on Gettysburg battlefields (to a lesser extent).

[hawk61401]

how does anyone know whether there anything or not? That is the reason for the survey. I'm glad we have a city that wants to preserve these artifacts if they are there. Reminds me of what is going on in Pennsylvania and Walmart building on Gettysburg battlefields (to a lesser extent).

The birthplace of Des Moines is a transplanted cabin from Washington County, Iowa. If we really wanted to accurately portray the founding of Des Moines, we would have had a beautiful statue of a Dragoon on his horse. They were lightly armed cavalry soldiers who scouted Iowa soon after the Black Hawk Purchase (1832). Dragoons established outposts from present-day Des Moines to Fort Dodge in the spring and summer of 1835.

The Des Moines river south of Court Ave isn't exactly a famous Civil War battlefied. We know about our city's past and there's nothing we can do to change it. We can do a lot about our present and future.


attributed to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birth ... Moines.jpg

[SharpHawkeye]

I may get in trouble for posting this (I have gotten in trouble over posting images before) but here goes...

from Wikipedia:



The picture page for attribution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indians_of_Des_Moines.png

The Wikipedia entry on Des Moines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Moines#Origin_of_Fort_Des_Moines

[Mastermind]

Throw in wooly mammoth near 10th and Locust.

[hawk61401]

What they have found in downtown Des Moines from past digs ....

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/org/pch ... 16550.html

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm ... 7E303D1FFE

[Ingersoll1978]

According to WHOTV's 10 pm story...the developer has 9 months to execute the franchise in Downtown Des Moines. They said that the Hampton Inn franchise for downtown Des Moines has been purchased, but they may need to find a different location. Anyone know if it's truly dead or just at this site?

[wildbill]

According to WHOTV's 10 pm story...the developer has 9 months to execute the franchise in Downtown Des Moines. They said that the Hampton Inn franchise for downtown Des Moines has been purchased, but they may need to find a different location. Anyone know if it's truly dead or just at this site?

In a mark of stellar journalism, the Cityview Civic Skinny cites, well, no one, in stating that the project is "dead."

This just in: Yet another downtown hotel project has fallen through, Skinny has learned. The plan to build a Hampton Inn on the riverfront block just north of the Brown-Camp Lofts — announced with some fanfare a few weeks ago — is dead.

http://www.dmcityview.com/2009/09/03/co ... kinny.html

[DMRyan]

If this group is interested in pursing a downtown hotel development, there are plenty of other sites to consider, although none as remarkable as the sensitive riverfront location. It sounds like they've already spent $150,000 in planning and buying franchise rights for a hotel here, I would think they wouldn't want to lose that investment.

Off the top of my head:
-A western gateway location on the now vacant and demolished site of the Iowa Paint office
-South of MLK in the Gray's Landing area
-The Bud Mulcahay's Jeep site in East Village
-Pick a lot or underbuilt site near the arena
-One block to the west of the current location, housing a few vacant or borderline industrial uses

[Better Life dude]

If this group is interested in pursing a downtown hotel development, there are plenty of other sites to consider, although none as remarkable as the sensitive riverfront location. It sounds like they've already spent $150,000 in planning and buying franchise rights for a hotel here, I would think they wouldn't want to lose that investment.

Off the top of my head:
-A western gateway location on the now vacant and demolished site of the Iowa Paint office
-South of MLK in the Gray's Landing area
-The Bud Mulcahay's Jeep site in East Village
-Pick a lot or underbuilt site near the arena
-One block to the west of the current location, housing a few vacant or borderline industrial uses

I would add the NE corner of Grand Ave. and 15th Street where the post office annex is and Scotty's body shop. Or the surface lot on Grand Ave. between 10th and 11th Streets immediately east of the new Wellmark parking garage. Both sites would serve the Methodist hospital complex and the later site could connect with the skyway system.

[butters]

Maybe I have entirely the wrong impression, but when I think Hampton Inn, I think a very suburban looking facility with a sloped roof and asphalt shingles. I certainly do not think of a very 'uran' looking hotel with a Hampton Inn. Have there been any schematic elevations of the building released?

[rasmeth]

The one in South Carolina looks urban, you should look at pictures of it online.